Day 4 — Descent They descend into the municipal center. The hydroponics lab is real — sterile, humming, half-dead plants on automated racks. In a sealed file, they learn Salvation was an evacuation program gone wrong: volunteers were sealed in cryochambers; the facility shut down when funding stopped. Someone is still running things down here.

Day 1 — Arrival A battered convoy rolls into the ruined coastal town. The sky is the color of iron. Survivors file out: a medic with steady hands, a burned-out ex-soldier, a young coder clutching a cracked tablet, and a pastor whose faith is a raw thing. They shelter in an abandoned church while distant alarms pulse like a dying heartbeat.

Epilogue — Aftermath (brief) Months later, seedlings sprout on the municipal roof. The rebuilt community honors those lost and learns that salvation isn't an algorithm — it's the choice to keep others in mind.